News Entry

The 2011 GradExpo was a success! One hundred and twenty-eight graduate students participated as entrants: 66 in the poster division, 41 in the oral presentation division, 12 in the Intermedia/Fine Arts division and 9 in PechaKucha. There were over 50 faculty members who participated as judges and an estimated 400 faculty, staff and graduate students attended over the two day period. At the opening night reception there were over 250 guests.

The Graduate Student Government (GSG) awarded nearly $3,800 in prizes. While the GSG supports the GradExpo, they would like to thank the following sponsors, for without their generous support, this wonderful event would not have been possible:

The Graduate School is currently seeking a new faculty-member-in-residence to provide student service support to the resident population in the Stodder Hall graduate residence. The faculty-member-in-residence will be available to help students with housing related issues when the Graduate School office is not open; working with the Graduate School staff and the Graduate Student Community Coordinator, s/he will foster an integrated community within the Stodder Hall residence. The faculty-member-in-residence and his/her family will receive full room/board in a 2BR apartment on the first floor of Stodder Hall during the academic year with partial room/board available for the summer. The position may be renewable based on
satisfactory performance.

The faculty-member-in-residence position is open to faculty members and post-docs. A strong background in student advising and relevant experience in a residence hall setting is preferred.

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Assessment (CETA) is proud to announce the winners of the Graduate Excellence in Teaching Awards.

Nicole Heller, doctoral student in Developmental Psychology won the Solo Instructor category award which recognizes a graduate teaching assistant who has served (or currently serves) as the primary instructor of a class.

Artur Palacz, a doctoral student in Oceanography won the Teaching Assistant category award which recognizes a graduate teaching assistant who assists a faculty member with administering, grading, or co-teaching classes.

The UMaine College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture graduate students will make a series of presentations on Friday, March 18 as part of the College's graduate student research awards competition. The 20-minute presentations, which begin at 1:10 p.m. and continue until 4, are scheduled for the Graduate Commons - Room 57 in Stodder Hall. Scheduled to present are UMaine students Ellen Robertson, Crista Straub, Venura Herath, Aleksandra Kristo, Michelle Goody and David Mallet. Members of the UMaine community are welcome to attend any or all of the presentations.

The Center for Teaching Excellence and Assessment are taking applications for two graduate teaching assistant awards, Solo Instructor and Teaching Assistant. Members of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Assessment’s Steering Committee will review portfolios. The winner in each category will be contacted by the Director of the Center by Wednesday, April 6, and will receive a framed award and a gift certificate. If you have any questions, please contact Gail Agrell at 581-3472. Please click here for more information about applying for these awards.

A hypothesis: Today anything can be art -- and that is not a bad thing. But it does come at a cost -- art is now mainly imagined to be a distinct sphere -- The Art World -- where forms of subjectivity and cultural capital contentedly circulate. This too is fine. But is there room to imagine that today art could be part of a larger and more ambitious project of “worldmaking”? Could art imagine itself part of the project of evolving new modes of being-of-the-world? This lecture is a meditation on this emerging dynamic.

The Graduate Student Government has released a schedule of the 2011 GradExpo (Graduate Academic Exposition), formerly the Graduate Research Exposition, which takes place on April 21st and 22nd at the Wells Conference Center. For two full days, entrants-who are selected from UMaine graduate students-present their work in an academically competitive atmosphere. Entries may consist of an academic poster presentation, art installation or performance, oral presentation, and—new this year—PechaKucha for those who wish to try an exciting new way of presenting information. Originating from Japan, the format for PechaKucha enables the presenter to showcase 20 slides in 20 seconds. The slides are set on a timer, and move forward while the presenter speaks about each slide.

Also new for this year, entrants will be divided into separate academic categories and will compete against other graduate students in similar fields: Physical Sciences and Technology (Physics, Mechanical Engineering, etc.); Natural Sciences (Forestry, Ecology and Environmental Science, etc.); Liberal Arts I (Economics, Sociology, Communications, etc.); and Liberal Arts II (English, Modern Languages, Intermedia, etc.). We hope that this organization will level the playing field while also facilitating the judging of the event.

Guidelines and entry forms will be available on the GSG website in late January for each of the categories. Submission will be online through the GSG website. Click here for a full schedule of events. Mark your calendars now!